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Protecting Chicago's Students

Parent Updates

August 17, 2018

Dear Parents and Families,

In the past several months, we have been following and building upon our comprehensive Plan of Action to protect our students. And to ensure we leave no stone unturned, we asked Maggie Hickey, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Illinois Executive Inspector General, to identify any gaps and provide recommendations to improve our policies and procedures.

We have taken several major steps to act on Ms. Hickey’s earliest recommendations, including creating the district’s first Office of Student Protections and Title IX (OSP). This 20-member team has a clear mandate to advocate for students, provide supports for survivors, and coordinate the district’s response to any allegation of abuse, which includes referring allegations of adult-on-student abuse to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

Earlier today, Ms. Hickey and her team released a preliminary report which will help us build upon the significant steps we've taken over the summer to strengthen safeguards for students. Our plan of action aligns to Ms. Hickey’s comprehensive roadmap for a safer and stronger school district, and we have implemented many of the recommendations that Ms. Hickey outlined in her preliminary report.
In addition to forming OSP, we wanted to highlight additional steps we’ve taken this past summer:

· CPS’ current background check process exceeded the requirements of state law, but we wanted to make sure that we could receive better information on current employees whose conduct might disqualify them after employment. We improved our centralized background check processes by re-checking the backgrounds of the tens of thousands of adults who come into contact with students.

· We’ve formed a new partnership with the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center to re-train employees to identify signs of abuse and ensure survivors receive the supports they need and deserve. Parents and community members will also be able to access these trainings at our 13 Parent University sites later this year.

· We’re updating our sexual education curriculum and educational materials to better educate students on identifying inappropriate relationships and sexual abuse as part of our district-wide education and awareness campaign to help students, staff, and community members identify and report abuse.
We are committed to ensuring that CPS is free of sexual discrimination, harassment, and violence. The wellbeing of your children is our highest priority and we thank you for your continued support. education and awareness campaign to help students, staff, and community members identify and report abuse.
We are committed to ensuring that CPS is free of sexual discrimination, harassment, and violence. The wellbeing of your children is our highest priority and we thank you for your continued support.

June 18, 2018

Dear CPS Parents and Families,

As part of our efforts to strengthen our approach to keeping children safe, we are partnering with the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center to support students and help prevent sexual abuse. Our new partnership will help create safer and more responsive school environments by training Chicago Public Schools (CPS) employees on signs of abuse, connecting students with therapeutic resources, and leveraging additional partnerships to help protect Chicago’s students.

Nothing is more important to CPS than keeping your children safe. While we have continuously strengthened critical protections in recent years, we are committed to doing everything possible to create safe and supportive school environments, and providing you with regular updates as we move forward with the comprehensive Plan of Action (bit.ly/cpsplanofaction) to better protect students.

We are also taking a look at the whole system to ensure we’re supporting students effectively. Assistant U.S. Attorney and Illinois Executive Inspector General Maggie Hickey is conducting a top-to-bottom review of district policies and procedures to identify any other issues that need to be addressed. We expect that Ms. Hickey will release a preliminary set of recommendations in August, and we will work closely with her to implement them throughout the summer.

We also recently announced additional steps to strengthen investigations, background checks, Board policies, and communication with families:

Before school begins in the fall, all adults who regularly work in schools – including CPS employees, coaches, volunteers, and vendors – will go through a re-check of their background to ensure they will contribute to a safe school environment. The background re-checks that occur over the summer will guarantee that all current staff, vendors, coaches, and regular volunteers are evaluated through the stringent process that has been in place since 2012. Moving forward, CPS will periodically re-check all employees to ensure the district has the most up-to-date information about any new arrests or convictions.

The district will transfer the responsibility of investigating allegations of sexual abuse from the Law Department to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to ensure that these cases are investigated in a way that eliminates any perceived conflict of interest

In addition to handling the investigation of all allegations of student sexual abuse going forward, we’ve asked the OIG to review all sexual abuse cases involving students since at least 2000 and further back, as the cases warrant, to ensure victims receive proper support and any inappropriate actions by current staff are addressed. We will take any additional action necessary.

We launched cps.edu/ProtectingStudents to help families locate resources and stay updated on the district’s comprehensive effort to safeguard students.

At the Board of Education’s June 27 meeting, the Board will consider a new policy that will require all employees to report signs of predatory behavior, and not just suspected abuse. If approved, the policy would also require the reporting of grooming behaviors, a sign of potential future predatory acts, and inappropriately intimate relationships between staff and students. We believe that these important steps will help address longstanding problems in the district and begin to create a safer school district. We will not rest until we’ve done everything possible to safeguard your children, and we will continue to keep you updated as our work continues.

June 1, 2018

Dear CPS Parents and Families,

Nothing is more important to Chicago Public Schools than the safety and wellbeing of your children. You entrust us to educate and safeguard your children, and that trust is sacred. Over the years, CPS has continuously improved efforts to protect students, but we must be vigilant and address any issues that could endanger our students.

As CEO and as a CPS parent, I will not be satisfied until I am confident that the district is doing everything possible to protect students. I’m writing to share several additional steps we will take in this effort.

Last week, the Board of Education asked an independent, outside expert to review all of our practices, policies, and procedures for addressing instances of alleged sexual misconduct, harassment, or abuse. Maggie Hickey, former Assistant United States Attorney and Illinois Executive Inspector General, will lead this top-to-bottom review. We will share her recommendations and our plans for implementing the recommendations with you as soon as her review is complete.

In addition to this review, we are taking several immediate steps to strengthen vetting and background checks of current and future staff, supports for students, investigation process, and staff training. For a comprehensive list of actions we are taking to further protect our students, please read Protecting Chicago’s Children: CPS Plan of Action in its entirety at bit.ly/cpsplanofaction.

A few examples of additional steps include the following:

CPS will begin conducting background checks for all current employees on a periodic basis. In addition to the existing pre-employment background check process, this will provide an avenue for CPS to learn about employees who are accused or convicted of committing a crime after they have been hired. While the Board has an agreement with the Illinois State Police, Chicago Police Department, and other agencies to notify CPS in these instances, implementing ongoing checks will provide an additional layer of information.

CPS will develop a standard framework for comprehensively investigating and addressing each reported incident, with a particular emphasis on providing support for victims. Responses to each incident will include a review of whether the appropriate services and supports were provided to the student and family and a protocol for following up with the student and family to identify and address ongoing challenges.

CPS will establish a centralized eligibility process for all athletic coaches and assistant coaches, whether volunteers or employees.

CPS will propose new policies to require all employees to report inappropriate staff-student relationships or early signs of “grooming,” which are potentially predatory behaviors by adults, expanding beyond employees’ current obligation to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.

During the 2018-19 school year, CPS will retrain all employees on their obligations as mandated reporters of any physical or sexual abuse of children. We will also implement a public awareness campaign in schools, district offices, and City of Chicago facilities to raise awareness of child abuse and the responsibilities of reporting suspected abuse.

CPS will continue to work with principals to conduct an audit of all school volunteers to ensure that they have been screened in accordance with CPS policies.

Most importantly, we all must work to ensure that our children are safe from harm. If you see evidence of abuse, please call the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The 24-hour hotline is: 800-25-ABUSE, or 800-252-2873. In addition to calling DCFS, you can also report evidence of abuse to your school principal.

CPS is committed to providing safe, supportive, and healthy learning environments for all students, and we will not rest until we have met that commitment.

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Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school district in the United States with more than 600 schools and serves 361,000 children. Our vision is that every student in every neighborhood will be engaged in a rigorous, well-rounded instructional program and will graduate prepared for success in college, career and life.